Getatchew Mekuria
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Getatchew Mekuria
Getatchew Mekurya ( Amharic: ጌታቸው መኩሪያ ወልደ ተክሌ; 14 March 1935 – 4 April 2016) was an Ethiopian jazz saxophonist. Early career Mekurya was born on 14 March 1935, in Yifat, Ethiopia. His father was a honey merchant. Young Getatchew played traditionel Ethiopian instruments such as the washint flute, the krar and the masenqo, and later moved on to the saxophone and clarinet. At age 13, he began his professional career in 1949 as a part of the Municipality Band in Addis Ababa. In 1955 he joined the house band at Addis' Haile Selassie I Theatre, and in 1965 joined the famous Police Orchestra. He was also one of the first musicians to record an instrumental version of ''shellela'', a genre of traditional Amhara vocal music sung by warriors before going into battle. Mekurya took the ''shellela'' tradition seriously, often appearing onstage in a warrior's animal-skin tunic and lion's mane headdress. He continued to refine his instrumental ''shellela' ...
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Shewa
Shewa ( am, ሸዋ; , om, Shawaa), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa (''Scioà'' in Italian language, Italian), is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous monarchy, kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is located at its center. Modern Shewa includes the historical Endagabatan province. The towns of Debre Berhan, Antsokia, Ankober, Entoto and, after Shewa became a Provinces of Ethiopia, province of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa have all served as the capital of Shewa at various times. Most of northern Shewa, made up of the districts of Menz, Tegulet, Yifat (Ethiopia), Yifat, Menjar and Bulga, Ethiopia, Bulga, is populated by Christian Amhara people, Amharas, while southern Shewa is inhabited by the Gurages and eastern Shewa has large Oromo and Argobba people, Argobba Islam in Ethiopia, Muslim populations. The monastery of Debre Libanos, founded by Saint Tekle Haymanot, is located in the district of Selale, al ...
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Amharas
Amharas ( am, አማራ, Āmara; gez, ዐምሐራ, ʾÄməḥära) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group which is indigenous to Ethiopia, traditionally inhabiting parts of the northwest Highlands of Ethiopia, particularly inhabiting the Amhara Region. According to the 2007 national census, Amharas numbered 19,867,817 individuals, comprising 26.9% of Ethiopia's population, and they are mostly Oriental Orthodox Christian (members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church). They are also found within the Ethiopian expatriate community, particularly in North America. They speak Amharic, an Afro-Asiatic language of the Semitic branch which serves as one of the five official languages of Ethiopia. As of 2018, Amharic has over 32 million native speakers and 25 million second language speakers. Various scholars have classified the Amharas and neighboring populations as Abyssinians. Origin The earliest extants of the Amhara as a people, dates to the early 12th century in the middle ...
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Susheela Raman
Susheela Raman (born 21 July 1973) is a British musician. She was nominated for the 2006 BBC World Music Awards. Her debut album '' Salt Rain'' was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001. She is known for energetic, vibrant, syncretic, and uplifting live performances built on the sacred Bhakti and Sufi traditions of India and Pakistan. Biography Early years Susheela Raman's parents are Tamils from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, India, who arrived in London, UK in the mid-1960s. At the age of four, Raman and her family left the UK for Australia. Susheela grew up singing Carnatic music and began giving recitals at an early age. She recalls how her family "were eager to keep our Tamil culture alive." As a teenager in Sydney she started her own band, describing its sound as "funk and rock and roll", before branching out into more blues and jazz-based music, which demanded quite different voice techniques. She tried to bring these streams together when in 1995 she travelled to India to ...
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Chicago Reader
The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a group of friends from Carleton College. The ''Reader'' is recognized as a pioneer among alternative weeklies for both its creative nonfiction and its commercial scheme. Richard Karpel, then-executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, wrote: e most significant historical event in the creation of the modern alt-weekly occurred in Chicago in 1971, when the ''Chicago Reader'' pioneered the practice of free circulation, a cornerstone of today's alternative papers. The ''Reader'' also developed a new kind of journalism, ignoring the news and focusing on everyday life and ordinary people. After being owned by same four founders since 1971, by the early 2000s profits and readership of the ''Reader'' were dropping, and o ...
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Y'Anbessaw Tezeta
''Y'Anbessaw Tezeta'' is the second studio album by Ethiopian tenor saxophone player Getatchew Mekuria in collaboration with Dutch punk rock band The Ex and several other musicians. The title is Amharic for "The Memory of the Lion" and Mekurya intended the record to mark the closure of his 65-year career. History, recording and release Five years after the release of his album ''Moa Anbessa'', Getatchew Mekuria asked The Ex to make one more album with him. Mekurya had toured the world with the band and a number of guest musicians in the interim, and chose to revisit some of his older material after deepening his artistic collaboration with them. From December 2011 through April 2012 they recorded several pieces of music—mostly instrumentals—in both the Netherlands and Ethiopia. The Ex brought together an international roster of friends to play horns on the sessions, including Chicago saxophonist Ken Vandermark, French clarinetist Xavier Charles, and Dutch trombonists Joost B ...
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Fendika
Fendika (Amharic: "Exult!") is an Ethiopian music group based in Addis Ababa. Led by dancer/choreographer Melaku Belay, they operate a venue, tour, record, and perform under the name Fendika. History Born in 1980 in Ethiopia, Melaku Belay lived as an orphan on the streets of Addis Ababa. As a child Belay earned a living shining shoes and taught himself to dance through participation in folk traditions and religious festivals. He worked for seven years as a dancer for tips in Addis Ababa's Kazanchis neighborhood at a local ''azmari bet''—a tavern that hosts azmari story-songsters who accompany themselves on the masenko (a one-stringed violin) or krar (a type of lyre). Each night after work, the young Melaku slept under the bar and eventually saved enough money to buy the club, Fendika Azmari Bet, from its owners. When not working at the azmari bet, Melaku traveled extensively through Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and South Sudan to learn as many dances as he could from more t ...
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Moa Anbessa
''Moa Anbessa'' is an album by Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria with Dutch post-punk band The Ex and guests, released in 2006 on The Ex's subsidiary label Terp. Background The project came together on the heels of The Ex's previous studio album '' Turn'', which incorporated elements of Eritrean and Congolese music alongside a tribute to the Ethio-Jazz anthems of Getatchew Mekuria. The Ex had toured Ethiopia twice and then invited Mekuria to perform at their 25th anniversary show in Amsterdam where he proposed that The Ex be the backup band for his next album. In addition to ''Moa Anbessa'', the collaboration yielded tours of Europe and North America as well as an official live DVD released by Buda Musique, producers of the influential '' Ethiopiques'' series of ethiojazz compilations. Live Performances In addition to Mekuria and The Ex's core two-guitar/drums/vocals line up, ''Moa Anbessa'' and the tours surrounding it featured additional brass and reed work from Canadi ...
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Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer. After early experience playing R&B and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. However, some critics argue that while Ayler's style is undeniably original and unorthodox, it does not adhere to the generally accepted critical understanding of free jazz. In fact, Ayler's style is difficult to categorize in any way, and it evoked incredibly strong and disparate reactions from critics and fans alike.Claghorn, 1982. His innovations have inspired subsequent jazz musicians. His trio and quartet records of 1964, such as ''Spiritual Unity'' and ''The Hilversum Session'', show him advancing the improvisational notions of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman into abstract realms where whole timbre, and not just mainly harmony with melody, is the music's backbone. His ecstatic music of 1965 and 1966, such as "Spirits Rejoice" and "Truth ...
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Ornette Coleman
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation''. His pioneering performances often abandoned the chordal and harmony-based structure found in bebop, instead emphasizing a jarring and avant-garde approach to improvisation. AllMusic called him "one of the most important (and controversial) innovators of the jazz avant-garde". Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Coleman began his musical career playing in local R&B and bebop groups, and eventually formed his own group in Los Angeles featuring members such as Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. In 1959, he released the controversial album ''The Shape of Jazz to Come'' and began a long residency at the Five Spot jazz club in New York City. His 1960 album ''Free Jazz'' would profoundly influence the di ...
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All About Jazz
''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near You'', about local concerts and events. The Jazz Journalists Association voted ''All About Jazz'' Best Website Covering Jazz for thirteen consecutive years between 2003 and 2015, when the category was retired. In 2015, Ricci said the site received a peak of 1.3 million readers per month in 2007. Another source said that the site has over 500,000 readers around the world. Ricci was born in Philadelphia. He heard classical and jazz from his father's music collection. He played trumpet and went to his first jazz concert when he was eight. With a background in computer programming, he combined his interest in jazz and the internet by creating the ''All About Jazz'' website in 1995. The website publishes reviews, interviews, and articles pe ...
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Free Jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during this period believed that the bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting. They became preoccupied with creating something new and exploring new directions. The term "free jazz" has often been combined with or substituted for the term "avant-garde jazz". Europeans tend to favor the term "free improvisation". Others have used "modern jazz", "creative music", and "art music". The ambiguity of free jazz presents problems of definition. Although it is usually played by small groups or individuals, free jazz big bands have existed. Although musicians and critics claim it is innovative and forward-looking, it draws on early styles of jazz and has been described as an attempt to return to primitive, often re ...
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